How to make duck ham

Published: 06-Oct-2013 (14:54); Viewed: 2808; Difficulty: 1 out of 10

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Duck breast is a tender meat with beautiful taste and aroma. In this article, I will show, how to make duck ham at home from the fresh duck breast fillets. This ham can be perfect addition to any sliced ham and cold meat platter for any occasions. Another great advantage of this duck ham is a simplicity of cooking, this recipe can be repeated by any chefs.

step-by-step instructions

Ingredients for four duck breasts.

4 fresh duck breasts

1 kg Large sea salt.

2 tbsp Black pepper, freshly grounded

1 tbsp Bay leaves, chopped

1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped

50 ml of Cognac

50 ml of Sherry cream

Remove skin from duck breasts, but leave as much as possible fat layer. Unfortunately, duck skin can be a bit hard to chew and it is better to remove it before cooking.

Combine salt with all finely chopped herbs, spices and alcohol.

Mix sat with spices carefully.

Dig duck breasts into salt, make sure, that all sides of the meat are in good contact with thick layer of salt. Duck breasts should stay with fat side up and meat side down. Cover tray with cling film and keep it fridge for 12 hours.

After salting 12 hours in the fridge, wash away in a running cold water salt and spices from the surface of the meat.

Dry surface of the meat with paper towels.

Wrap each piece of duck breast into a paper towel or linen towel and keep 12-24 hours in the fridge to mature it. After maturing, slices this meat and serve.

tips and tricks

Never use small salt crystals, only large!

It is possible to substitute sea salt by rock salt, but it should be large crystals as well.

Use duck skin later as a cooking fat for frying.

It is very important to obey the salting time in the fridge, because this time ir related with the final salt concentration in the duck fillet.